Jack Rich
2006-12-03 16:25:31
A dissenting view: my own Bar Mitzvah convinced me that Judaism, at least as it was practiced in my Conservative synagogue, was not for me.
Why? Because all I had to do was memorize and repeat some Hebrew, without knowing the meaning. Yes, memorization was difficult, and, yes, I did learn to at least read Hebrew, if by read we mean pronounce the words properly.
It wasn’t until much later in life that I actually undertook to learn some Hebrew grammar and vocabulary at the local JCC. While I’m very glad to have done so, I wish I’d been smart enough to have insisted on real Hebrew scholarship before I went through the motions at age 13.
